In the rubble of southern Yemen, where electricity and water supplies are fitful at best and many buildings lie in ruins, it's hard to feel triumphant. The government has touted as a major breakthrough its recent defeat of the Islamist group that held sway here. But many locals don't see it that way.

On the outskirts of Jaar, the first city captured last year by Ansar al-Sharia (Partisans of Islamic Law), an al-Qaida affiliate in Yemen, civilians sheltering from the sun under a tarpaulin spoke fondly of life under the militants.

"Safe!" they shouted, when asked how they felt during the months they lived under Islamist rule. "The order they brought was good," said one resident, who declined to give his name. "There wasn't any more stealing."

"The only ones whose hands they cut off are those who steal," said another, when asked about Ansar al-Sharia's harsh code of justice.

Government troops and local militia fighters now patrol the streets in the Abyan governorate that al-Qaida militants controlled for more than a year. Yet many in the region are unconvinced that the government's blitzkrieg against the militants has turned the tide in the fight against al-Qaida's growing presence in the fragmented nation.

Jaar, the nerve centre of Ansar al-Sharia's former bygone Islamic emirate in Abyan, is largely unaffected after the militants' withdrawal. Local people mill around the vegetable market, competing with mule carts and motorcycles on the city's main street. Rubbish lines many streets, and buildings are decaying everywhere. Graffitied black flags – Ansar al-Sharia's emblem – remain sprawled over walls in several districts. The most visible change is the market selling qat, the mild narcotic leaf chewed by most Yemenis, which has been relocated to the city centre. Ansar-al Sharia relegated the market to the outskirts.

A re-established military base looms on the mountaintop above Jaar. Around the base, however, wind howls through the empty corridors of derelict buildings.

A mobile telephone relay station on the mountain peak is a hollow wreck, its broadcast equipment smashed. Soldiers blame Ansar al-Sharia. They claim the militants were trying to rob the city of what little infrastructure it had in order to impose its rule on the weakened city.

Ali Ahmed al-Dhaini, a soldier at the base, spoke of the US drone campaign in the region, which he says allowed the army to recapture the city. "Al-Qaida stole armoured cars and tanks from the army, and the American aircraft would pursue them and strike." He hotly denied claims that drones were causing civilian casualties. "The drones' work was clean," he said. "They didn't hit anybody except those who were armed."

Civilians in Jaar take another view of drones. Several strikes demolished buildings in the city. One local man said that second strikes often hit civilians gathered around an initial drone strike site.

"They made mistakes," he said. Another civilian said: "In all the confrontations, there were civilian sacrifices."

After more than a year of fighting between Ansar al-Sharia and government forces, Abyan's capital, Zinjibar, is in ruins. Decaying military posts and collapsing walls flank the road into town. At a roundabout in the town centre of Zinjibar, a bombed-out tank makes shade for men avoiding the midday sun. On one of the city's main streets, a few residents idle around a sandwich shop, the only eatery to reopen in the city since its liberation.

Locals and soldiers in Zinjibar know this is not the endgame. Government soldiers cluster around recently reoccupied bases. Heavily armed militia fighters in sandals and traditional skirts, alarmed by landmines planted throughout the city, warn visitors not to stray from main roads. Since the military's takeover last month, mines have killed 23 people.

One Zinjibar resident, recently returned from refuge in Aden, said that rather than attempting to crush al-Qaida and its affiliates, the government should focus on reconstruction and development. "We just need security and stability," he said.

Another resident interrupted: "[We need] unification of the army, then security and stability will come."

At his imposing compound secured by high walls, sandbags and droves of soldiers on the windswept coastline outside Zinjibar, Abyan's governor, Jamal Nasser al-Aqil, attacked Ansar al-Sharia: "They call themselves 'Partisans of Islamic Law', though the acts they've carried out have denigrated the name of Islam."

Asked if he thought Ansar al-Sharia's project in Yemen was ever sustainable, the governor added:

"The community wouldn't accept them. But the community they were dealing with was desperate and in great need. Where could they go?"

Another resident in Zinjibar was sceptical of the central government's real desire to eliminate al-Qaida. Accusing the former president Ali Abdullah Saleh of manipulating the al-Qaida threat for his own ends, he said: "Just a telephone call from Sana'a [capital of Yemen], and they [al-Qaida] can come or go."